The history of blackletter: where Old English fonts come from

Blackletter, often called Old English or gothic script, is one of the most recognizable lettering styles in the world. It appears on newspaper mastheads, beer labels, certificates, tattoos and hoodies. The style has a surprisingly long history, and knowing it helps you use it with confidence.

Born in medieval handwriting

Blackletter developed in Western Europe around the twelfth century, as scribes copying books with a broad-edged pen made letters narrower and more angular. Narrow letters saved expensive parchment, and the pen's angle produced strong vertical strokes and sharp corners. The dense, dark look of the pages gave the style its name: blackletter.

It never was a single alphabet. Scribes in different regions developed their own versions, and today's names for them, such as Textura, Rotunda, Schwabacher and Fraktur, are used by historians to tell them apart.

The printing press

When Johannes Gutenberg printed his famous Bible in the 1450s, he used a blackletter typeface because it looked like the handwriting readers knew. For decades, printed books in Germany, England and many other countries used blackletter. In Italy and later across much of Europe, a rounder style inspired by Roman letters took over, and blackletter became less common in everyday reading.

Fraktur and Germany

In German-speaking lands blackletter remained the normal style for much longer. Fraktur, a refined version with elegant curves and breaks, was used for books and newspapers well into the twentieth century. In the 1940s official policy moved away from it, and Roman type became standard. The Unicode alphabets used by many "Old English" text generators are called Fraktur for this reason.

Old English in Britain

In English-speaking countries, blackletter survived in formal and ceremonial uses: church documents, diplomas, legal papers, pub signs and the mastheads of newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. The "Old English" name is a modern marketing label, because the style is not actually from the Old English period. It simply feels old and traditional.

A new life in the twentieth century

In the twentieth century blackletter found new audiences. Chicano culture in the United States adopted it for lettering and tattoos, and hip-hop artists, skateboard brands and streetwear labels used it to look bold and rebellious. Heavy metal bands used its sharp shapes for their logos. Today the same lettering can signal heritage on a craft brewery label and attitude on a clothing brand.

How to use blackletter well today

• Keep it short. Blackletter is tiring to read in long paragraphs. Use it for a name, a title or a few words.
• Avoid all capitals. Blackletter capitals are very decorative and hard to read when words are set only in capitals. Mix upper and lower case.
• Pair it with a simple font. Use a clean sans serif or serif for the surrounding text so the blackletter stands out.
• Give it space. Tight, dense letters need room around them.
• Consider the meaning. The style has different meanings in different contexts, so think about your audience.

Try it yourself

You can create Old English text to copy and paste, or save a PNG in any colour, with our free Old English font generator. To download real blackletter fonts with live previews and clear licenses, browse the Free Blackletter Fonts collection.